Vital Stats

Q

Can you give us poor mortals an example of how you train? You have to be doing something crazy, right?

My goal every year is to be bigger and better than I was the year before. The competition just keeps getting better and the pressure just gets hotter. Nothing gets easier. To keep winning, I have to constantly outdo myself.

This constant competition doesn't mean that I do anything crazy in the gym. I stick to bread-and-butter bodybuilding. I hit my muscles from various angles, work on bringing up any weaknesses, and design workouts that are always challenging and helping me progress.

if... you condition your body to be able to handle high volume. You don't need steroids to be able to do high volume training. I'm natural, and do a two day double split with anywhere from 12-16 sets per body part and will probably increase that volume in a few weeks, and many olympic lifters and powerlifters who are natural will train relatively high volume as well (though in a different manner than I do). You just have to increase your calorie intake to offset the extra calories burned from volume training and make sure you get enough sleep. I've been following that protocol and eating about 4000 calories daily to cut, as opposed to the 3000-3500 I'd eat on a lower volume training program, and haven't experienced anything even remotely similar to overtraining.

Arnold actually explains how to work up to volume like that in his encyclopedia of modern bodybuilding. It's tough for the first few weeks, but after that your body adapts and it becomes pretty easy to maintain.

Not really, Saltus; high volume is usually done with sets taken to mechanical failure, not muscular failure as in high intensity programs, so the strain is less. Also, the heading above the program says "Olympia-prep;" I'm certain you know about periodization--I assume he does not do this year-round.

rest days are overrated as far as I am concerned. If you train smart, eat smart and enough, and sleep enough, there is no reason why you can't do a split that allows you to workout daily, while still giving enough rest time in between hitting the same body parts. I have worked out like this for 10 years, and feel great. I almost never take rest days, and my body feels amazing.

"sleep enough" and "giving enough rest time in between hitting the same body parts" equals recovery time, same as rest days. And, besides individual differences, there are many other variables to consider. It's not really cut-and-dried.

Listen to what i'm saying: "there is no reason why you can't do a split that allows you to workout daily"I'm not talking about refusing your body rest, i'm talking about doing a split that gives you the ability to workout everyday without over straining your body. Hence my comment that rest days are overrated IMO. I know this aint for everyone, but to tell people who want to workout daily that they can't do it without hurting themselves or limiting their ability to lift in the future, is nonsense. You can do splits that provide enough rest for your body parts, without actually taking rest days.

try running your car for days non stop, yeah you'll end up burned too, body needs to recuperate, eventually your CNS will shut you down & you become vulnerable to injuries especially when not giving a day rest to your shoulder